“Knowing the Unknown God”
Acts 17:22-31 & Psalm 66 ~ Northwood UC ~ May 14, 2023
This is a place of relationship. We call this a ‘church family’, don’t we? It was so wonderful for me to ‘come
home’ after my sabbatical and ‘be’ with everyone. Because that is what we are about… relationship…
knowing one another…As I started, this is a place of relationship. So, it is very natural to have our ears
perk up when we hear a text that refers to “The unknown god”.
Here is the setting. Perhaps you have been lucky enough to visit Athens in person? Paul, is in front of the
magnificent Greek Areopagus, and he speaks to the crowd about an altar devoted to one of the Greek
pagan gods, with the inscription below it “To an unknown god.” The Areopagus is very significant. It is
prominent rock outcropping that you can see on the screen. Coming from the Latin, ‘Areios Pagos’ literally
“Hill of Ares”. It was the hill of the war god Ares. It was the place where the Athenian court tried cases of
homicide, wounding and religious matters. So, it is very significant for Paul to raise this religious matter to
the crowds at the Areopagus. Paul raises the matter of relationship with God. Is you God one that is
known to you? Or is your God a stranger…an unknown?
St. Augustine, the great church father from the 4 th century famously wrote in his book “Confessions” about
our relationship with God. He said that God made us for Godself and our hearts will be restless until they
rests in God. Is your heart restless? Or is your heart resting in God? Do you have a deep relationship with
God? How is that relationship nourished? How does it grow and flourish? Do you desire to deepen it? Is it
non-existent? God has made us for Godself and our hearts will be restless until they rest in God.
To be fair, while they called god “The unknown god”, the Greeks did have a connection. They, of course,
were intellectual philosophers. So, it was only natural that pursuits of the spiritual matter also emerged
from an intellectual foundation. Some of the philosophers of the day followed Epicurus. A form of
materialism that was opposed to superstition or divine intervention. It promoted the goal of one’s pleasure
in life. The other school of thought in the day, which opposed the Epicureans, were the Stoics. Their focus
was on the virtuous life arising from practicing virtues and ethics. External matters, such as health, wealth
and pleasure are not bad in themselves, they would argue. However, one’s internal sense of virtue and
ethics is the one sense of good. And the reason we remind ourselves of these two schools of Greek
thought is because they are Paul’s audience. The Epicureans ~ pleasure seekers and the internal virtue-
bound Stoics were the ones Paul was addressing. They were the ones who made up the crowd listening
to Paul. Paul who would speak to them about the God who can be known, who yearns to be known in a
powerful, intimate way, a God incarnate, known in love…a God intimately known in the Way of Jesus
Christ.
And before we jump too far ahead, I wonder in some ways, if Paul might be speaking to us. Sometimes
we get so bogged down in our minds ~ seeking to know God intellectually, that we forget that our God is
(firstly) a God of relationship. I know that I’m guilty of this…perhaps you are too? We read book after
book…seeking to know God more deeply. We travel to know God. We research…we watch religious
videos…we attend study groups…all to know God more deeply. There is nothing inherently wrong with
these practices; however, we are reminded in this text that God is first and foremost a God of relationship;
our God is one who yearns to be known in the flesh; our God came to us incarnate ~ living love ~ in the
witness of Jesus Christ. Not to be studied, and researched, but to occupy our heart.
Please don’t get me wrong here. I love books about faith; I love videos about faith; I love studies. I’m not
suggesting that we ever stop these practices. What I am reminding us, as Paul does in this text, is that
God is made known in relationship. God yearns to be known to you in the relationship we have with Jesus
Christ. As Augustine taught: He said that God made us for Godself and our hearts will be restless until
they rests in God. Do you have a restless heart? Or is your heart resting in God? Do you have a deep
relationship with God? Are you nourishing that relationship? How does it grow and flourish? For when it
becomes only an intellectual pursuit, it will quickly become non-existent. It will become as the inscription in
Athens read…a relationship with “an unknown god.” God has made us for Godself and our hearts will be
restless until they rest in God.
The life and witness of Jesus was all about making God known in human form. Our faith has the unique
element of knowing God reflected through God’s son, Jesus. We think of God’s overwhelming love poured
out through Jesus’ ministry. Jesus who welcomed the stranger; Jesus who welcomed the outcast…the
sinner…the saint. Jesus who washes the feet of his friends; who heals the lepers; who raises the
dead…who offers his very life. Jesus’ life is love poured out and Jesus’ life makes God’s Way known to us
in a knowable way. God, through Jesus, is not an ‘unknown god’; rather God through Jesus is a God we
know through a love that will never give up. God has made us for Godself and our hearts will be restless
until they rest in God.
Today is a day that many celebrate as “Mother’s Day”. Among the most famous list of ‘mothers’ is a lady
born on the 26 th of August in 1910 in the area of North Macedonia. Her name at birth was Agnes Gonxha
Bojaxhiu. And after taking her final vows with the Sisters of Loreto, she was given the name we know her
by…“Mother Teresa”. Mother Teresa is one who is a living example of God’s love alive in the world.
Travelling to India at the ripe old ago of 18, she served as a teacher in Calcutta. In Calcutta, she devoted
her life caring for the sick and poor. She moved into the slums of India and, in 1950, received permission
from the Vatican to found the Missionaries of Charity who were dedicated to serving “the poorest of the
poor.” At the time of her death, this charity had over 4,000 sisters and hundreds of thousands of
volunteers working in hundreds of centres around the world. Mother Teresa was a modern day example of
God’s love poured out.
At the time of her death, Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity had over 4,000 sisters and hundreds of
thousand of volunteers working in hundreds of centres around the world. These included homes for
orphaned children, homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leper colonies, and hospices for the terminally ill.
When she was awarded the Nobel Prize for her ministry, her acceptance speech was a further example of
love poured out. She inspired many saying: “I think that we in our family don’t need bombs and guns, to
destroy to bring peace – just get together, love one another, bring that peace, that joy, that strength of
presence of each other in the home. And we will be able to overcome all the evil that is in the world.”
Some of us have mothers who are famous in our own families for their example and witness of ‘love
poured out.’ Some of you are here this morning. They may not be as famous as Mother Teresa; they may
not be as perfect…but to us…they are powerful examples of ‘love poured out.’ I know we don’t like to
think of ourselves this way, but as followers of Jesus ~ who poured out God’s love unto us ~ you have
poured out your lives to your family. You have made God’s love known; You have helped our hearts, that
would have been forever restless, be settled as we rest in God’s love. It IS quite a responsibility…being a
mother. Pouring out love for ~ selflessly for your family ~ but no one ever said that being a follower of the
one who first poured out love was ever easy.
And let us not stop with mothers here. ALL of us, as followers of the one who poured out his life in love
are called to offer this same reflection in our loving. Women, men, boys and girls…all of us are charged by
the lover of our hearts to live in this way; to offer love in our living. Your heart will be restless until it rests
in God…your heart will be restless until you receive God’s love and offer it back to your family as
love…until you offer love back to your community…to offer love back to your world!
Do you feel restless? Do you feel a disconnect with the ‘unknown god’? To know God is to embody God’s
living love…to receive it…and to offer it back to the world! Let us not be restless; let us rest in the lover of
our souls and offer that love back to the world…now and always!
Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, ‘Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in
every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship,
I found among them an altar with the inscription, “To an unknown god.”
What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.
Love poured out to you and from you.
Amen.